Editorial

When you or your loved one suffers from a medical emergency, it is Virginia’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel who are relied upon to respond quickly to the call for help and provide quality prehospital care. Last year, EMS providers responded to just over 1.4 million calls for help in Virginia, approximately 3,879 incidents per day.

Matthew 27:50-54
Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

One person can make a difference.
That is something Lionel Toms taught us.
Toms, who passed away last Monday at the age of 72, didn’t let the tragedy that took the life of his son remain just a tragedy. He used it as an impetus for change.

It should come as little surprise that the Bedford County School Board has come back to the supervisors seeking more money for the new middle school construction project in the Liberty zone – especially if that project is to include a competition gym for Liberty High School.
The school board had originally projected the project at about $53 million, but then inexplicably were told by consultants that the $38 million set as a limit by the supervisors last summer was “doable.”

A Capital News Service story on transparency in government noted that two first-term legislators had formed a bipartisan caucus to make the Virginia General Assembly more accessible to the public.
It’s unfortunate, however, that the session kicked off with the media being kicked upstairs in the Senate. A rule change there moved the media off the floor and into the upper gallery.
Really? This is the course to transparency in government?

We certainly hope you were on Santa’s “Nice” list this year. If you were on his “Naughty” list, you were out of luck. You didn’t even get a lump of coal as President Obama and the EPA confiscated Santa’s coal pile.
Friday is New Year’s Eve, a holiday famous for alcohol lubricated parties. If you attend one of these, and end up overserved, please do not get behind the wheel.

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

t’s time to stop using the Hitler comparisons, whether it is Barack Obama, Donald Trump or some other polarizing political figure.
Adolf Hitler, the fascist head of the Nazi Party who served as Germany’s chancellor for more than a decade, from 1933-1945, was responsible for the beginning of World War II and as leader of the Third Reich oversaw the genocide of six million Jews through the Holocaust.